The United States is healthy enough to absorb further gradual rate increases and the slow wind down of the massive bond portfolio accumulated by the Federal Reserve during the financial crisis, Fed Chair Janet Yellen said in prepared testimony to be delivered to Congress Wednesday morning. Source: Fed’s Yellen says economy steady enough for more […]

Sort of a surprise to most Fed watchers today as the consensus was for the Federal Reserve to raise rates a 1/4 point in September, not June. Perhaps it won’t make much difference for the whole year, but Chair Janet Yellen obviously wants to stay ahead of the curve. The target inflation rate remain 2% […]

The jobs numbers were relatively positive considering the weak growth earlier this year, but still concerning in that the post-recession job growth is not was is normally expected after a recession. Still, one positive is that we are not facing inflation or seeing numbers that would indicate the U.S. is slipping back into a recession. […]

There was a spirited debate this past week concerning the Federal Reserves’ exit strategies and what will happen when the Fed balance sheet is deleveraged. The equity bulls continue to believe the U.S. will see economic grow as interest rates remain low and continued tame inflation numbers (some like Wilbur Ross are more concerned about […]

The stock market roars to new highs as the summer comes to an end, but investors continue pouring money into higher risk equities as if they have forgot what can happen. This is in part due to the low yield in fixed income assets and the new indice highs have more than a few economy […]

Lots of odds and ends in the news this Wednesday afternoon. First the Fed is not talking inflation and will be continuing with the expected $10 billion taper. Second, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezo introduced Amazon’s newest device called the Fire Phone … looks nice, but time will tell. It’s a 4.7” screen device with a […]

Ukraine continues to be under siege, SE Asia and Africa have unstable countries, Afghanistan will most likely go back to Taliban control, Iraq is imploding … but European markets are said to be in “recovery” and U.S. stock indices continue setting new highs and generating overly inflated annual returns for those “fully” invested (since when […]

Outspoken President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, Richard Fisher, talked with Maria Bartiromo on her new Sunday Morning Futures program this weekend and laid out a good case lower tax rates. His point is that money and investment flows to where it is treated the best and in turn jobs and […]

Love him or hate him, billionaire “business magnate, politician and philanthropist” Michael Bloomberg clearly understands the effect the Federal Reserve has when it comes to pumping money into the economy. So simple and so true when it comes to who benefits the most from government trying to solve business and wealth inequity problems. He is […]

There's way too much speculation in the thought the Federal Reserve will again "try" to prime the economy when serious regulation and tax changes are what we need from Washington DC. If Bernanke and crew sit quietly on their hands or even suggest the economy doesn't need additional stimulus, we'll most likely see another stock […]

Although I’m tiring of watching the fickle up and down action of the stock market … as are those who might stumble across my blog these couple of weeks … it is better to be able to say that the Dow Jones Industrial Average finished near session highs today. The 429.92 points – 3.98% gain […]

It should come as no surprise, but after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke delivered his remarks on Wednesday saying the U.S. economy was recovering more slowly than expected, Wall Street had little interest in continuing to move indices positive. More than likely the fact that the Fed saw no reason to tighten money supply in […]

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